Linda Milich is a space medicine doctor sent to Consortia, the first permanent base on Mars. Linda belongs to the Extraterrestrial Lift and Logistics Consortium—XLCON, which also controls the base.
Among Linda’s crew is a professor involved in an independent project that represents the boldest step in evolutionism since Darwin. It deals with the possibility of creating new species for all existing genera, including humans, due to the low Martian gravitational pull. XLCON fears this project can trigger off a political and religious upheaval with consequences to their colonization plans, and wants to uproot it by means of subterfuges and contrivances.
When the attack begins, it strikes indiscriminately and Linda almost dies in the process, but she is the only one who suspects there is malicious design behind what seem to be unlucky mishaps. Worst of all, she cannot trust anybody and no one believes her. In a world with no place to hide, Linda is in the open to fight to the death a vicious and deceitful enemy within her ranks.